Thursday, November 20, 2014

Review: Kitsune: Crimson Moon by Justin Conley and David D. Haynes IV

Kitsune: Crimson
Moon is the first novella in a series that follows Detective David Hamada
as he investigates the murders of young women in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. In the
course of his investigation, Hamada runs afoul of a number of criminals who run
the local strip club. Meanwhile, a sort of shape-shifting avenging angel is
busy killing those same criminals, which makes Hamada's job at once both easier
and harder.

On its surface, this book should have a great deal
to recommend it, including mystery, supernatural elements, and plenty of sex.
Unfortunately, it falls down in the execution right from the first page.

Full disclosure: This reviewer is a teacher who frequently
reminds her students about the importance of carefully editing assignments
before they're turned in. My students sometimes complain that since I don't
teach English, I shouldn't deduct points for grammar, spelling, sentence
structure, and punctuation mistakes. My reply is that they can have the
greatest ideas in the world, but if their readers are distracted by mistakes in
the writing, no one will take those ideas seriously. That's true whether you're
talking about an English paper or a chemistry lab report – or a crime novella
set in Japan.

Parts of Crimson
Moon are evocative and engaging, but many more parts are jarring and hard
to read because of grammatical errors and overall sloppy editing. This isn't
true on just a few pages, either. It persists throughout the entire book. For
instance, the second paragraph contains this sentence:

The killer deemed the Monster had a
proclivity to go after young schoolgirls and commit the acts so sick that mind
could not conceive.

By page 41, things hadn't improved. The third
paragraph reads:

"You think I'm afraid of dying,"
Ichiro exploded in laughter?

The errors were distracting and prevented the
reader from being able to fully focus on the story. Which brings up concerns
with the story itself. It's full of graphic sex and sadistic murders, which
aren't everyone's cup of tea. Maybe it should come with a warning label. It's
also unclear why this book was sent to a New Adult book review site. Most New
Adult books feature main characters between the ages of about 18 to 25 dealing
with problems that people that age often address. Things like getting through
college, finding that first job, or having to buy an ugly bridesmaid's dress
are common themes. In this book, the only people from 18 to 25 appear to be the
dead girls, and their problem is that they've been killed by sadistic members
of the Japanese mob. Fortunately that's an uncommon experience for most New
Adults.

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About Me

Welcome to New Adult Book Reviews where our motto is On the Edge. That's because the whole New Adult genre is on the edge. In fact, it's a genre that a lot of people are just hearing about for the first time. But for those of us who have heard of it and who have dived into it, New Adult is a thrilling addition to the literary landscape.

So what exactly is New Adult? It's an exciting new fiction category about main characters who are generally 18-25 years old (give or take) and are experiencing relationships and problems that readers in that age group (and beyond) can identify with. All fiction genres can have New Adult subcategories, just like all fiction genres can have young adult books. Popular genres among New Adult readers include (but aren't limited to) fantasy, steampunk, and paranormal romance. It's the next step up from young adult books, but New Adult often contains "adult themes" and can have graphic scenes since the main characters are at least 18.